First Chris Garwood now another copper ! Starting with us straight from Trinity as a second row John was a stalwart prop right through the 1980s packing down in the front row with the likes of Steve Mullarkey and Carl Wahlers.

During his illustrious career with us John skippered the club for three consecutive seasons starting 86/87 in which time we won a remarkable 80 percent of our games. But probably his highlight was when we won the Surrey Cup 1988 and John was still in the team which won the London league 2 South the next year to get us into London 1 where we remained for the next ten years. John's last game for the club is so clear in his memory that he can recall the exact date (31st October 1992). A severe knee ligament injury ended his love affair with the game.

Shortly before that and after working for a few years at Midland Bank (now HSBC) John joined the Sussex Constabulary and after a probationary period moved into the CID branch. The family moved from Croydon to Haywards Heath in '93 and have lived there ever since. Rapid promotion followed and John has been a Detective Inspector for eight years now with two DSs and ten DCs on his team. If you don't understand the abbreviations you're not watching enough TV cop dramas! Headquartered in Lewes his group work in Counter Terrorism taking in much of the South East including Gatwick so were recently kept busy with the G20 Finance Summit in Sussex.

John and his wife Marie have two children, Hannah 17 who is keen on basketball and young Joseph 14 who is mad on his cricket and football. This got his dad into refereeing soccer, a serious defection surely, but he enjoys it and running too (never did that when he played for us!)

Otherwise much of his off-duty hours are spent taxiing the kids to their sports dates but when he's not doing the John idles his time away with film going, Sudoku and listening on his I-pod to everything from classical stuff to Coldplay. The family are keen members of the National Trust but for the big breaks enjoy holidaying across the pond usually Florida at Xmas time which they have done half a dozen times.

Now just coming up to 50 John is a Vice-President of the rugby club and follows our fortunes with keen interest and a touch of nostalgia for those heady years in the late 80s and early 90s.

Where next?

Mel Catchpole
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Like Graham Crouch an alumnus of Mitcham County Grammar School Mel Catchpole chose not to play for M